CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Law Minister S Regupathy on Wednesday wrote to Governor RN Ravi urging him to accord early sanction to prosecute four former ministers of the AIADMK — C Vijaya Baskar, BV Ramana, KC Veeramani, and MR Vijayabhaskar — on various corruption charges.
Regupathy said files regarding this have been pending with the Raj Bhavan for many months. His letter comes days after Chief Minister MK Stalin’s hard-hitting missive to the governor over the dismissal of minister V Senthil Balaji.
Stalin had taken a dig at the governor for maintaining silence on his government’s requests for sanction to investigate and prosecute former ministers and public servants for offences committed during the previous AIADMK regime. The requests have been languishing at Raj Bhavan for months, the CM had pointed out.
Even the CBI’s request for sanction of prosecution in the gutka case has not been acted upon by Ravi. These selective actions exposed the governor’s unhealthy bias and real intent behind the dual standards adopted by him, Stalin had charged.
Regupathy detailed cases against the four former ministers. Referring to charges that Vijaya Baskar and Ramana had received money from gutka distributors, he said that a criminal case was registered as per the Madras High Court’s directive and the CBI had sought to prosecute them.
The state cabinet gave its consent to this and sought the governor’s sanction to prosecute the duo on September 12, 2022. However, as there was no response to this letter till now, the investigation in this case has been delayed, he said. In two other instances, DVAC had sought sanction to prosecute former ministers Veeramani and Vijayabhaskar. After the state cabinet consented to this, letters in this regard were sent to the governor on September 12, 2022, and May 15, 2023. These requests have been pending with Raj Bhavan ever since.
Regupathy added that 13 Bills have been pending with the Raj Bhavan for a long time.He requested the governor to give his assent to the pending Bills and for prosecuting the former ministers without any delay.
Requests pending with raj bhavan
The DVAC had sought sanction to prosecute former ministers Veeramani and Vijayabhaskar. After the state cabinet consented to this, letters in this regard were sent to the governor on September 12, 2022, and May 15, 2023. These requests have been pending ever since